Summary
Even with double opt-in, email newsletters can be marked as spam in Gmail and other providers due to a multitude of factors. These include issues with sender reputation, content relevance, email authentication, list hygiene, and sending practices. Specifically, high spam report rates indicate that recipients don't want the emails, requiring a re-evaluation of content and target audience. Gmail's delivery is influenced by the relationship between the sender and recipient, making generic inbox placement testing tools unreliable. Proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is crucial for verifying sender identity. Maintaining list hygiene by removing inactive subscribers, and avoiding spam trigger words helps maintain a positive reputation. Other key elements are ensuring accessible email design, providing easy unsubscribe options, sending personalized content, and using dedicated IPs with gradual warm-up. Monitoring feedback loops and sender reputation tools is essential to address issues promptly. If the sending infrastructure has been compromised and is sending spam unknowingly, this needs to be investigated.
Key findings
- Sender Reputation: A strong sender reputation is critical for inbox placement; a poor reputation significantly increases the likelihood of emails being marked as spam.
- Content Relevance: The content of your emails must align with subscriber expectations. Irrelevant or low-quality content leads to higher spam complaints, regardless of opt-in status.
- Email Authentication: Properly configured SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are essential for verifying your email's authenticity and preventing it from being flagged as spam.
- List Hygiene: Regular list cleaning to remove inactive subscribers, bounced addresses, and unsubscribed users improves engagement and deliverability.
- User Engagement: Gmail and other providers consider user engagement as a significant factor. High spam report rates directly impact future deliverability.
- Easy Unsubscribe: Providing a clear and easy unsubscribe process prevents frustrated users from resorting to marking your emails as spam.
- Compromised Infrastructure: A compromised sending infrastructure can send emails without the sender's knowledge which affects reputation and delivery.
Key considerations
- Monitoring & Action: Actively monitor sender reputation, spam complaint rates, and feedback loops to identify and address deliverability issues promptly.
- Content Re-evaluation: Continuously re-evaluate the content you're sending to ensure it's valuable, engaging, and meets subscriber expectations.
- Personalization Strategy: Implement a personalization strategy to deliver more relevant content to each subscriber, increasing engagement and reducing spam complaints.
- IP Warm-up: If using a new IP address, follow a gradual warm-up process to build a positive sending reputation with ISPs.
- Subscriber Expectations: Managing subscriber expectations on what they will be receiving and how often it will be sent is essential.
What email marketers say
14 marketer opinions
Even with double opt-in, email newsletters can still be marked as spam in Gmail due to various factors. These include poor list hygiene (not removing inactive subscribers, bounced emails, and unsubscribes), irrelevant or low-quality content, sending frequency issues, difficult unsubscribe processes, poor sender reputation, lack of email accessibility, missing permission reminders, compromised sending infrastructure, and lack of personalization. Addressing these issues by cleaning email lists, segmenting audiences, providing valuable and accessible content, improving sending practices, monitoring sender reputation, and personalizing emails can improve inbox placement.
Key opinions
- List Hygiene: Regularly clean email lists by removing inactive subscribers, bounced emails, and unsubscribed contacts to maintain a healthy sender reputation.
- Content Relevance: Ensure content matches subscriber expectations, provides value, and avoids spam trigger words to minimize spam complaints.
- Unsubscribe Process: Make the unsubscribe process clear and easy to prevent subscribers from marking emails as spam out of frustration.
- Sender Reputation: Monitor sender reputation and IP address, addressing any negative trends promptly.
- Personalization: Personalize emails to make them relevant to the recipient, avoiding a generic or mass-produced feel.
- Sending Infrastructure: Investigate and secure the sending infrastructure to ensure it has not been compromised and used for sending unsolicited emails.
- Segmentation: Segmenting email lists to send more targeted and relevant content to specific groups of subscribers, increasing engagement and reducing spam complaints.
- Frequency: Assess the frequency of emails sent. Sending too many emails too often can lead to subscriber fatigue and increased spam complaints. Ensure you set expectations about frequency upon sign up.
- Accessibility: Ensure your emails are readable on all devices and email clients, and that they adhere to accessibility guidelines. Poorly designed emails can be flagged as suspicious.
Key considerations
- Monitor Complaint Rates: High complaint rates (e.g., 5% with a large volume) are a strong indicator of unwanted email and require immediate action.
- Implement Feedback Loops: Sign up for feedback loops offered by ISPs like Gmail to monitor spam complaints and remove problematic addresses.
- New IP Warm-up: If using a new IP address, warm it up gradually by sending emails to engaged subscribers first, slowly increasing volume.
- Permission Reminders: Include permission reminders in your emails. Briefly remind subscribers why they are receiving the email, which can help reduce spam complaints from people who may have forgotten they subscribed.
- Assess Content Value: Even with double opt-in, if the content doesn't match what subscribers expect or find valuable, they're more likely to mark it as spam.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Campaign Monitor answers to include permission reminders in your emails. Briefly remind subscribers why they are receiving the email, which can help reduce spam complaints from people who may have forgotten they subscribed.
15 May 2023 - Campaign Monitor
Marketer view
Email marketer from Reddit states to focus on the content being sent; even with double opt-in, if the content doesn't match what subscribers expect or find valuable, they're more likely to mark it as spam.
9 Jul 2022 - Reddit
What the experts say
8 expert opinions
Even with double opt-in, email newsletters may land in spam due to various factors influencing deliverability, particularly in Gmail. Inbox placement testing tools often provide inaccurate results as they don't reflect individual user relationships. High spam report rates signify that recipients don't want the content being sent. Gmail's delivery is based on the sender-recipient relationship, the content's relevance, and subscriber expectations. Monitoring feedback loops (FBLs) is crucial for identifying problem addresses, and examining sending practices for irrelevant or low-quality content is essential. It's also important to check for list bombing attacks, and tracking sender reputation helps address issues.
Key opinions
- Testing Tool Limitations: Inbox placement testing tools may not accurately reflect individual customer experiences due to their reliance on probe accounts.
- Spam Report Significance: High spam reports indicate that recipients don't want the emails, highlighting the need to address underlying issues in content and audience.
- Relationship-Based Delivery: Gmail delivery is based on the relationship between the recipient and the sender, impacting deliverability.
- Content-Expectation Match: Matching subscriber expectations with email content is critical to reduce spam reports. The content needs to be relevant.
- Feedback Loops: Monitoring feedback loops (FBLs) allows identification and removal of problematic addresses.
- Sender Reputation Impact: A poor sender reputation negatively affects deliverability, necessitating proactive monitoring and management.
Key considerations
- Re-evaluate Content: If users are reporting spam despite opting in, re-evaluate your content and sending strategy, aligning them with your subscribers' expectations.
- Monitor Sender Reputation: Proactively monitor your sender reputation and address any negative trends quickly.
- Assess Sending Practices: Carefully examine your sending practices for anything that could be perceived as spam.
- Investigate List Bombing: Look into whether you could be experiencing a list bomb. Review the list for suspicious signups, and add CAPTCHA and a confirm subscription email.
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource answers that it is important to sign up for and monitor feedback loops (FBLs) offered by ISPs like Gmail. FBLs provide data on which subscribers are marking your emails as spam, allowing you to identify and remove problematic addresses from your list.
22 Nov 2024 - Spam Resource
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks highlights the importance of matching subscriber expectations with the email content. A disconnect between what subscribers expect and what they receive leads to spam reports, emphasizing a need to review the content and opt-in process.
11 Dec 2022 - Email Geeks
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
Even with double opt-in, email newsletters are marked as spam because spam filters, like Gmail's and Outlook's, consider multiple factors: user reports, authentication, sender reputation, and content relevance. Filters learn from user actions, so repeated spam reports impact future deliverability. Improving deliverability involves authenticating the sending domain with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC; maintaining list hygiene by removing inactive subscribers; using a consistent sending IP; and crafting engaging, relevant content.
Key findings
- Multifactorial Filtering: Spam filters consider user reports, authentication, sender reputation, and content to determine if an email is spam.
- Adaptive Filters: Email filters learn from user behavior, such as marking emails as spam.
- Authentication Importance: Setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records is crucial for verifying email authenticity and improving deliverability.
- List Hygiene: Maintaining a clean email list by removing inactive subscribers improves sender reputation and deliverability.
Key considerations
- Authentication Setup: Ensure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are properly configured for your sending domain.
- Consistent Sending IP: Use a consistent sending IP address to establish and maintain a positive sender reputation.
- Content Quality: Focus on creating engaging and relevant content that recipients want to read.
- User Feedback: Pay attention to user feedback and promptly address any negative trends.
Technical article
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help explains that Gmail's spam filters consider many factors, including user reports, authentication, sender reputation, and content. Even with double opt-in, if users mark emails as spam, Gmail learns from this feedback.
3 Dec 2021 - Google Workspace Admin Help
Technical article
Documentation from SendGrid emphasizes the importance of setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to authenticate your emails. This helps ISPs verify that the email is genuinely from your domain and reduces the likelihood of it being marked as spam.
29 Jul 2023 - SendGrid
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